Long Beach: 100-year-old historic house on the market

9/26/13 - Real estate broker David Black is listing a 100-year-old Bluff Park house that once belonged to A.C. Sellery, co-founder of Seaside Hospital. Seaside was the predecessor of Long Beach memorial. The home at 2701 E 1st Street has four bedrooms, a rental property and a beautiful view. (Photo by Brittany Murray/Press Telegram)

LONG BEACH >> A century-old house built for one of early Long Beach’s most prominent doctors is on the market.

The house, at the crossing of East First Street and Molino Avenue in the city’s Bluff Park neighborhood, was built in 1913 for A.C. Sellery, a founder of Seaside Hospital, which evolved into Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

The home is owned by Michael and Sharon Westfall. Michael Westfall’s family acquired the house in 1983, he said, and the couple have worked for about three years to restore the residence after inheriting it.

“This is the first house we’ve ever done, that we’ve ever restored,” Sharon Westfall said. “It’s been slow and ponderous, and pretty gratifying.”

The Westfalls, whose permanent home is on Maui, said they approached the project with the objective of being true to the design styles of 1913, while upgrading the parts of the house that matter but are hidden from view, such as wiring and plumbing.

“The fun part of the project was researching all this stuff,” Michael Westfall said. “Los Angeles has got everything and anything. We spent our days driving around brick stores and antique stores.”

The Westfalls and their real estate agent, David Black, are asking $1,875,000 for the house.

To imagine the world of 1913, when the house was built, consider that Woodrow Wilson was serving his first year as president of the United States. California women had gained the right to vote only two years prior, with suffragists winning a narrow victory in a ballot measure campaign in which, as recounted by the Secretary of State’s office, support from the Golden State’s rural counties overcame serious opposition in San Francisco, which was then the state’s leading metropolis and resistant to women voting.

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The year 1913 was also a time when the Romanov, Hapsburg and Hohenzollern dynasties still ruled, respectively, in Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany. The continental monarchies — and Europe itself — had yet to be shaken and bloodied by the tragedy of the war that would ignite one year later after assassin Gavrilo Princep fired the fateful shots that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

Long Beach itself was but a small town compared to the city of today. The 1910 Census counted about 20,600 people living within the Township of Long Beach, an area that encompassed the city limits of that time and surrounding area. The Port of Long Beach itself was but 2 years old.

This was the Long Beach in which Dr. A.C. Sellery, a co-founder of Seaside Hospital, hired noted architect William Horace Austin to build his house at E. 2701 First Street.

“He (Austin) was the first major architect in Long Beach,” said Louise Ivers, author of “Long Beach: A History Through Its Architecture.”

“He designed houses and buildings in many different styles,” she added. “He had a tremendous output,” including at least 250 houses and other buildings, she said.

Austin’s original specifications for the house, which Sellery named Southwind, describe the home as a “two-story brick veneer residence and brick garage.”

Michael Westfall explained that the meaning of the word “veneer” has changed from 1913 to 2013.

“It’s a full-on brick,” he said. “It’s a wood-frame house with a brick facing.”

The house, as viewed from the outside, presents its brick exterior to East First Street and Molino Avenue. A line of young Catalina cherry trees parallel to Molino serve almost like a fence running from the house itself to the detached garage. The garage, like the house, has a brick facing and is distinguished by double doors that are reminiscent of an old-time firehouse.

The inside of the garage was rebuilt during the restoration process. Damage from a small fire added to the necessary work, Michael Westfall said.

“All the brick stayed,” he said. “All the beams got reinforced.”

The house’s interior is distinguished by lath and plaster walls — finding a craftsman who could repair the walls required a search — and several mahogany pocket doors. The doors, which slide in and out of the house’s thick walls, have rich cherry finishes.

Upstairs, the pocket doors can be used to form a hallway that isolates the home’s two main bedrooms from the rest of the dwelling. Sellery had the house built with a summer bedroom with large windows to let in the sun, and a winter bedroom that included a fireplace.

The house’s design reflects the social conditions of 1913. Although not included in the restoration, the house was built with a second staircase that kept servants out of sight while moving between the first and second floors. The kitchen is also small and closed off from the rest of the house.

“The kitchens were small for a purpose,” Sharon Westfall said. “It was just a place to cook, not a place to socialize.”

A buyer who wants modernity or features like a high-end Wolf range will not be the buyer for Southwind, Michael Westfall said. The house is instead for someone who wants all the quirks and historic touches that come with a 1913 edifice.